CHAP. III.] THE BLOOD IN DISEASE. 153 



According to Scherer 1 the blood in leucocythaemia, besides being 

 poor in haemoglobin, contains considerable quantities of hypoxanthine, 

 of lactic acid, and of an albuminoid substance whose solutions possess 

 the power of gelatinizing, and which is therefore surmised to resemble, 

 if not to be identical with, gelatine. These results have been confirmed 

 by the more recent researches of v. Gorup-Besanez and Salomon. 

 The whitish-red blood clot obtained from the vessels after death, 

 was by the former observer boiled with water, and the aqueous 

 extract, when concentrated and then allowed to cool, gelatinized. 

 As the body when separated did not in the least deviate the plane 

 of polarization, v. Gorup-Besanez 2 considered its identity with gelatine 

 to be disproved. 



Salomon found 0*116 grms. of hypoxanthin in 1550 c.c. of blood 

 obtained after death ; the same quantity of blood yielded 1'5 grms. of 

 zinc lactate. 



Neither hypoxanthine nor lactic acid can, however, according 

 to Salomon, be looked upon as characteristic of the blood of leuco- 

 cythaemia, as they probably occur in healthy blood and certainly in 

 that of other diseases 3 . 



Charcot's Charcot 4 discovered in the blood, the spleen and the 



liver of leucocythaemic patients, certain microscopic 

 colourless elongated crystals, insoluble in water, but soluble in acids 

 and alkalies, which he and Yulpian 5 were inclined to consider as 

 consisting of a proteid body. Salkowski considered them to be com- 

 posed of a mucin-like body. According to Zenker 6 these crystals 

 are often observed to form within the colourless corpuscles. 



These crystals are never observed in the blood during life, or 

 immediately after it is drawn from the vessels ; they usually separate 

 in large numbers as the leucaemic blood decomposes. 



They usually appear as very much elongated octohedra, or simply 

 as spindle-shaped bodies, which are transparent, colourless, insoluble 

 in ether, chloroform, and alcohol ; soluble with difficulty in cold 

 or hot water, but easily soluble in dilute acids and alkalies. They 

 appear to consist of the phosphate of a base which has been discovered 

 by Schreiner 7 in semen and in the spirit in which anatomical 

 preparations have been kept. To the hydrochlorate of this base 

 this author provisionally ascribes the formula C 2 H 5 N. HC1. 



1 Scherer, Verli. d. physik.-med. Gesell. zu Wiirzburg, Vol. n. pp. 321 325. 



2 v. Gorup-Besanez, " Untersuchung des Blutes bei lienaler Leukaemie." Sitzung*- 

 berichte der physikal-medicin. Societat in Erlangen, Mai, 1873. Abstracted at con- 

 siderable length in Maly's Jahresbericht, Vol. iv. p. 126. 



3 Salomon, " Zur Lehre von der Leukamie." Archivf. Anat. u. Phys., 1876, p. 762. 



4 Charcot et Kobin, Comptes Rendus de la Soc. de Biologic, 1853. 



5 Charcot et Vulpian, Gazette Hebdomadaire, 1860, p. 755. 



6 Zenker, " Ueber die Charcot'schen Crystalle im Blute und Geweben leuka- 

 mischer und in den Sputis." Archiv f. klin. Medicin, xvui. 125 135. 



7 Schreiner, "Eine ueue organische Basis in thierischen Organismen." Liebig's 

 Annalen, Vol. cxciv., p. 68. 



